SPELLBOUND UNDER THE SPANISH MOSS

A SOUTHERN TALE OF MAGIC

by Connor Judson Garrett ; Kevin N. Garrett ; illustrated by John J. Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 4, 2020

Novelist Connor Judson Garrett and travel writer Kevin N. Garrett offer a YA novel about a young fisherman who must undertake a quest to save his father from an otherworldly snakebite.

Circa the 1930s, teenager Gareth Greyfin and his father, Samuel, are fishermen of Savannah, Georgia. Gareth’s mother, Freya, died when he was an infant, and though Gareth and Samuel have vowed to sail the world together—to live out Freya’s dream and experience some of the magic found in Samuel’s bedtime stories—fear holds them back. Gareth berates his father, accusing him of being a coward. Then Samuel is bitten by a one-eyed viper, and all Gareth can think about is saving his dad’s life. As the venom brings Samuel closer to death, Gareth takes the elder Greyfin to see the witch Evangeline, who’s shunned and feared by the townsfolk but is an old school friend of Samuel’s. Evangeline sends Gareth on a quest, accompanied by her adopted daughter, Raven, a young woman of about Gareth’s age. Gareth must secure five ingredients with which to brew a cure, and they’re ingredients that he must harvest himself. But Evangeline may have another motive in sending him on a mission: It turns out that Raven can change between human form and that of a raven; as a raven, she can fly, but as a human, she’s unable to walk. Is Evangeline’s potion truly intended for Samuel, or would the witch sacrifice Samuel to give Raven the use of her legs? Joined by an old banjo-playing wanderer named Wally, can Gareth and Raven overcome their trepidation to collect the five magical ingredients?

The Garretts write in the omniscient present tense, and their prose has a fairy-tale quality to it, at once otherworldly and matter-of-fact, blending fantastical elements with a more mundane, bucolic idyll. The setting, which nominally encompasses the interbellum period between the two world wars, feels timeless. Yet, while the Garretts have a gift for description, their narrative style affords little distinction between everyday actions and unexpected or momentous events. (For example: “The trio continues walking as they talk. Suddenly, the earth below crumbles, and the ground gives way. They fall into a pit, the bottom of which is cushioned by a web as thick and strong as a net. Raven turns into a bird mid-air. ‘I guess we have arrived,’ Wally says breathless from landing with a thud.”) The novel’s true strength lies in its supporting characters—particularly Raven, Evangeline, and Wally—who, for all their strange allure, evince very real, very human flaws and uncertainties. The quest is secondary, but it proceeds at a steady pace and offers scope for character development and strange, unsettling encounters. The book’s three parts are prefaced with exquisite, full-page color illustrations from cover artist Pearson; these not only speak to events portrayed, but also give a sense of old-world enchantment and the wistful fragility of life. Such qualities permeate the story and will appeal to lovers of nuanced, morally complex magic and fable. A dreamy and nuanced coming-of-age fantasy.

Pub Date: June 4, 2020

ISBN: 9781950495054

Page Count: 108

Publisher: Lucid House Publishing

Review Posted Online: March 27, 2023

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT GENERAL TEEN | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION